IMMUNOTHERAPY

Roy Herbst, MD, PhD, discusses the next steps with pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer following its FDA approval, including combination regimens.  

Geoffrey Sklar, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Chesapeake Urology Associates, discusses the possibility for immunotherapy as a neoadjuvant treatment in bladder cancer.

Luciano Mutti, PhD, professor in cancer research, University of Salford, Manchester, discusses the current and future role of immunotherapy in mesothelioma. 

Findings from an efficacy update of patients participating in a study in the CheckMate series revealed that first-line nivolumab (Opdivo) demonstrated activity in advanced non–small cell lung cancer, and the addition of ipilimumab (Yervoy) resulted in enhanced activity, specifically in prolonged progression-free survival and higher objective response rates.

D. Anda Norbergs, an oncologist based in Palm Harbor, Florida, has been indicted for purchasing unapproved cancer medications from foreign sources and defrauding Medicare, United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III has announced.

Maura N. Dickler, MD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses an ongoing clinical trial of the CDK4/6 inhibitor abemaciclib combined with the PD-L1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. She also sheds light on abemaciclib's unique mechanism of action.

Roy. S. Herbst, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology), professor of Pharmacology, chief of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the phase III KEYNOTE-010 study, in which pembrolizumab provided superior overall survival over docetaxel in patients with previously treated, PD-L1-expressing advanced non-small cell lung cancer. He discussed these results during an interview at the IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer.

Early data from a phase I/II study suggest that the combination of brentuximab vedotin and nivolumab may be an active and well-tolerated outpatient regimen in patients with relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of standard frontline chemotherapy.

Treatment with the CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy KTE-C19 showed a complete remission rate of 73% for patients with aggressive, chemorefractory primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma and transformed follicular lymphoma, according to findings from the multicenter phase II ZUMA-1 study.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), pomalidomide (Pomalyst), and dexamethasone had an objective response rate of 65% and a very good partial response or better rate of 29% for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to phase II findings presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting.

Treatment with the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ibrutinib (Imbruvica) showed encouraging activity and safety in a small phase II study of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Richter transformation.

Anti-CD22 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy induced an 80% complete remission rate among children and young adults with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

SITC addresses the crucial value of cancer immunotherapy in discussions in a Value of Cancer Immunotherapy Summit. 

While mouse models have historically been helpful in the research of immunotherapies, genetic testing and clinical models may play a role in the near future.&nbsp;These pre-clinical models have been criticized for some of their limitations, but Marcus Bosenberg, MD, PhD, confirms their current relevance and clinical applicability.<br /> &nbsp;

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for use as a treatment for patients with refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma.

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has announced that it will honor the late David Grimwade, PhD, with the 2016 Exemplary Service Award.

The PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab was successfully combined with radiotherapy alone or concurrently with temozolomide for patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme in cohorts 1c and 1d from the phase I CheckMate-143 study.&nbsp;

Treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor elicited a durable clinical benefit rate of 28% along with a manageable safety profile for patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme that expressed PD-L1 on &ge;1% of cells.

Martin van den Bent, MD, Erasmus MC Cancer Center, discusses the results from the ABT-414 trial for patients with brain cancer.&nbsp;

Howard L. Kaufman, MD, FACS discusses the abstracts chosen for presentation during the Presidential Session of the SITC 31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs.&nbsp;

A number of new clinical and pre-clinical agents currently in development were explored during the SITC 31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs.&nbsp;

Treatment with the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab at selected doses led to a high response rate and marked improvements in overall survival ​for patients with pretreated metastatic urothelial carcinoma.

Treatment with pembrolizumab improved overall survival by 2.9 months compared with chemotherapy for patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma whose disease progressed after prior treatment.

Sonja Althammer, PhD, Team Leader Bioinformatics at Definiens, discusses a study looking to define a subgroup of patients with non&ndash;small cell lung cancer who respond best to treatment with the PD-L1 inhibitor durvalumab.